


Book 1: Water

by fingersfallingupwards



Series: Avatar Disney Fusions [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Disney - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Avatar & Benders Setting, Lilo is too cool for snow, Sorry Myrtle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-11
Updated: 2016-06-11
Packaged: 2018-07-14 09:50:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7166309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fingersfallingupwards/pseuds/fingersfallingupwards
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, Lilo can't explain how things just happen around her. Like pushing Myrtle over without using waterbending. Nani's up the wall, but Lilo can't do much about it. Everything comes to a head when she finds something interesting on the shores of the Northern Water Tribe.</p><p>Part one in a series of Disney/Avatar fusions where our heroines/princesses are all incarnations of the Avatar.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Book 1: Water

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for disney kinkmeme in a stupendous rush. All the errors and problems are due to that. Sorry.

Lilo stares down at her boots as Bubbles, the elderly storeowner, explains to Nani what’s happened in the last half-an-hour since Lilo left the igloo. It’s easier for Lilo to stare at her boots than to look at Nani’s frustrated eyes.

“Thank you for picking her up, we’ll apologize to Myrtle and her family later, won’t we, Lilo?” Nani says.

Lilo has done this enough times to know she nods here and mumbles something that others can interpret as a yes if they want. She doesn’t fight as Nani pulls her into the igloo while thanking Bubbles again and again.

When the tarp is closed though, and Nani rears up and glares, Lilo finally meets her sister’s eyes.

“Lilo, we’ve talked about this before,” Nani says.

“It wasn’t my fault!” Lilo replies.

“You can’t keep pushing people down with your waterbending!” Nani shouts.

“I wasn’t waterbending!” Lilo is totally comfortable yelling right back. Compared to silence and staring, Lilo much prefers this.

“Then how did Myrtle end up on the ground and covered with snow?”

Lilo doesn’t actually know. She just remembers being upset with Myrtle for telling the other girls that she killed baby seal-penguins to do evil rituals. She was shouting and then there was an upheaval in the air. Myrtle went flying and Lilo was left staring until Myrtle’s sobs brought an adult over to investigate.

“I don’t know,” Lilo hedges.

“I know it’s hard because you haven’t been able to get a teacher, but that’s no excuse to keep showing off. What if you hurt someone?!” Nani demands.

“She just got a bruise. She won’t even have to go to Kosha to get it healed. She’s totally fine. She just wanted to get me in trouble! She’s jealous ‘cause she’s not a bender.”

“You won’t be bending anymore either! Eight is the youngest they start teaching waterbending because of things like maturity,” Nani says. “And what happened today and last week and that time last month just proves the fact. It’s your choices that led to this and you can’t just take your frustration out on others.”

That isn’t it at all, but Lilo doesn’t have the words to explain the things that happen to her sometimes and it makes her so _frustrated._

“You just wish you had a sister that didn’t waterbend!” Lilo accuses, her eyelashes are getting wet again. The ire drains from Nani.

“No, Lilo, that’s not it! You’re just going too quickly. You’re so young.” Nani leans down and cups Lilo’s face. “That you can bend at this age is amazing, Lilo, the rest of the world just doesn’t move as quickly as you do.”

Lilo leans into the touch and lets her older sister wipe the building water away from her eyes.

“Promise me you’ll be more careful about your bending?” Nani asks.

Lilo nods even though she sighs inwardly. She’s trying. She’s _always_ trying. It just sneaks up on her.

“I have to go make some dyes now,” Nani says. She’s biting her lip, so Lilo knows her sister is trying to figure out if there is a way for her to stay home today _and_ keep her job _and_ make enough money to feed them. Lilo wants to save her the trouble.

“I’m going to go play on the shore,” Lilo says. Nani’s expression is still mixed, but she nods slowly and pulls her own gloves on.

“Alright, Lilo. Just don’t bring back any jelly-sloths today.”

Lilo nods and puts her hand in her sister’s outstretched mitten. The two walk hand-in-hand through the ice buildings to reach the coast of the Northern Water Tribe. Nani leaves her over near the shore.

“I’m just going to be right in here, okay?” Nani bites her lip. “Try not to get into any trouble.”

Lilo wants to make a face, but she doesn’t feel up to another argument, so she lets Nani enter the dyeing igloo without another word, well aware an eye will be on her the entire day.

There’s nothing for Lilo to do on the shore, but these are the things she does for her sister. Though, a little bit of the blame might be on Lilo for scaring away any member of the village who could possibly watch her while Nani works, but she has good excuses for every incident.

Since her usual activity of jelly-sloth collecting is out, Lilo walks slowly and tries to see if there are any shells on the beach that she could use for eyes. The faces Lilo is sewing on curse pouches she’s making for Myrtle and the other girls are coming along well, they just need some good eyes.

All the shells she finds are either too small, too big, or too pretty. Lilo sighs.

She looks up to the very far edge of the beach and blinks at the moving shape. It doesn’t look like a person, but it’s not quite a tiger-walrus. What it _is_ is the most interesting thing Lilo’s seen on the shore so far. She walks towards it eagerly.

Amid the rocks and ice chunks, she stumbles across some kind of animal she’s never seen before. It’s fending off two penguin-seals Lilo didn’t see. What makes her eyes go wide is the small hisses of fire that escape the new creature’s mouth.

It’s tiny and alone and being picked on and Lilo barely gives it a thought before she’s running towards the small scuffle and shouting. A gust wind from a sudden breeze blows the penguin-seals over. All three animals stare at her with surprise. The penguin-seals depart with one last snip at the other animal. The fire-breathing thing stares at Lilo with its head cocked to the side.

“You’re not from around here, are you?” Lilo asks. She receives a growl for her trouble.

The animal bristles but doesn’t run as she inches closer. Lilo takes in the stripes and spines on the creature, wondering if it’s poisonous. The wicked sharp teeth are even better. It’s the strangest creature Lilo has ever seen and she’s in love.

“I think you and I are going to be friends,” she decides.

The animal snorts a little, smoke exiting its nostrils as it does. Lilo stares at its eyes for a long moment before deciding it’s a boy. She needs a male presence in her life that isn’t David to promote her growth into a well-rounded, capable adult. At least, that’s what Bubbles says. He usually goes on to say that it won’t be him who fills that role.

The animal looks all kinds of vicious, like he destroys things a lot, so Lilo picks a name.

“Your name is Stitch.”

Stich quirks his head again and lets little flames light from his mouth. A brimming smile spreads over Lilo’s face.

“My name’s Lilo. I’m sorry you got picked on earlier. Seal-penguins aren’t the nicest. I think that maybe you scared them though because you look different than them. I get picked on for being different too.” Lilo sighs.

Stitch growls and spits some fire on the snow. Lilo nods.

“You’re right. We shouldn’t let them get us down.” It’s then that Lilo notices Stitch is shaking. Considering how he’s breathing fire, Lilo wonders how he can be cold. In the end, she’s more worried about his health than puzzling how he can be breathing fire and shivering at the same time.

“Come on, I’ll take you home so you can get warm.” Lilo smiles and slowly starts walking towards the way she came. She’s relieved to see Stitch is following behind her. He’s watching her warily, but regardless, he’s still coming.

As the two gets closer to the city, Lilo sees Nani on the shore, in the first phase of panicking about Lilo. The younger sister picks up the pace and waves her arms a little.

“Lilo!” Nani exclaims. Her voice is that relieved tone that goes either stern or angry after Lilo’s explanation. As she and Stitch get closer, Lilo can see Nani squinting at Stitch before her eyes goes wide.

“Lilo, Lilo!” Nani waves at her furiously. “Get away from that thing!”

Lilo stops a little away from her sister and looks over her shoulder to see if a penguin-seal somehow followed them, but all she sees is Stitch. Oh, Lilo gets it now.

“That’s Stitch, he won’t hurt me.”

“Okay Lilo, but why don’t you come over here anyways,” Nani says slowly. Her eyes never leave Stitch and Lilo frowns.

“No. I’m staying right here until you stop being mean to Stitch.”

Nani grits her teeth and moves closer, reaching a hand out to her sister. “Lilo, you—“

Stitch hisses a little fire and Nani scrambles back, almost falling before she screams. It’s so high pitch Lilo winces and Stitch growls and paws at his ears. People start coming from the igloos and down the street, and when they see Stitch, they stop and stare. Some gasp, and Lilo thinks she sees Myrtle faint.

David pushes through the crowd to reach Nani. His eyes are wide and frightened, but he puts a hand on Nani’s shoulder.

“What is that?” he asks.

“It’s a mongoose-dragon!” one of the more experienced sailors exclaims.

The people start muttering more and Myrtle’s mother faints this time.

Stitch is nearly vibrating with how much he’s shaking.

“His name is Stitch,” Lilo says, cross. “And you’re scaring him!”

“It’s a dangerous mongoose dragon,” Gantu, one of the best warriors, says as he moves from the crowd. “Step away from that thing, little girl.”

Lilo all but blanches as she sees him pulling out a machete.

“He didn’t do anything wrong!” Lilo says.

“And he won’t get to,” Gantu asserts. “His bones will be a wonderful addition to my collection. What a rare find.” He steps forward. Lilo jumps in front of Stitch with her arms held out.

“Leave him alone!”

Gantu just chuckles. “One day you’ll thank me for this.”

Before Lilo can even think to do anything, Gantu has yanked his boomerang out and sent it flying around her to Stitch. Stitch panics and jumps forward. He spits fire at Lilo, and she can’t help but cry out when it hits her mittens and burns her hands. She falls into the snow to stop the fire from spreading, but her eyes still water with tears. David is suddenly there, scooping her up off the ground and putting Lilo in her sister’s arms.

“Lilo! Are you alright?” Nani runs her hands over Lilo’s forearms and her fingers tremble when she sees Lilo’s burned palms beneath the scorched mittens. Nani carefully removes the mittens, ignoring Lilo’s pained whines. Once they’re off, David immediately pulls some snow up and covers Lilo’s hands, coaxing a blue glow from the water and easing the searing sensation of her hands. David always said healing was a little girly, but she’s glad he’s doing it right now because Lilo feels like her hands are going to fall off.

Nani then turns and shrieks at Gantu. “What the hell were you thinking, Gantu?! Lilo was right there, you could have hit her!”

“I have better aim than that—“

“I don’t want to hear it!” Nani shouts right back. She steps closer and stabs a finger at the tall warrior’s chest. “If you _ever_ come near Lilo again, I will push you into the frozen ocean again and again until the bubbles to stop coming up!”

Gantu shuffles and mumbles to himself. Lilo takes a hazy look at the crowd who are still staring. Myrtle’s father is passed out on the ground with the rest of their family, and everyone else is still gawking. It looks like the whole village is here.

“Well, I trust no one minds if I take care of it now,” Gantu mutters.

Lilo shakes the haze off the weakly shout.

“No! Don’t hurt him!”

“Lilo,” David says softly. “He’s dangerous. He hurt you.”

“Only because stupid Gantu scared him! He was fine before!” Lilo shouts. Her heart is thumping in her chest as Gantu approaches Stitch again. Stitch feebly breathes fire at him, but Lilo can see he’s too weak to win a fight or run away. She can’t let this happen.

“Say goodbye you stupid creature!” Gantu raises his machete.

“ _NO!_ ” Lilo shouts. A powerful gale of wind rises up with her words and throws Gantu over Stich and skidding into the water. The force of the blow makes David drop Lilo, and she scrambles to her feet and darts past Nani to reach Stitch. 

Stitch dug his claws into the snow to keep stable, and other than a wide-eyed look, he seems unharmed. Lilo sighs with relief. Stitch sniffs and comes closer to Lilo. He moves his head closer to Lilo’s palms which haven’t fully healed and he lets out a small pitiful noise.

Lilo manages a smile. “It’s okay. I’ll be alright. I know it was stupid Gantu’s fault anyway.”

Stitch sniffs a moment more before he stares into her eyes and gives a strange looking smile. Lilo returns it in earnest.

She looks back to the crowd, ready to tell them off again, but meets only their shocked faces. They aren’t staring at Stitch anymore, they’re staring at Lilo with something akin to reverence and awe. Even Nani looks shocked, and David’s jaw is hanging open.

Lilo guesses their mad at her for waterbending at Gantu, so Lilo puffs her chest up. She’s not going to apologize this time.

She whips around when she sees Gantu coming out of the water.

“Who did that?!” he shouts as he wades back up the shore. “Who dares bend at one of the greatest warriors of the Northern Water Tribe when my back is turned?! I ought to—“

“Warrior Gantu.” A cool, commanding voice breaks through the crowd, silencing everything. “That is quite enough.”

Lilo turns and stares as the Grand Councilwoman approaches, walking through the crowd which ducks their heads with respect and steps away from her. The soft sound of her long blue robes sweep over the snow is loud in the ensuing silence.

Gantu stutter for a moment before drawing himself up. “Grand Councilwoman. I was just disposing of a threat to the village.”

“That isn’t necessary. I do believe our Avatar has the matter well in hand.”

Lilo and Gantu both blink. Then the latter reels back.

“Who? Who is it!?”

The Grand Councilwoman approaches Lilo and Stitch. Stitch bristles up, but Lilo carefully pats him on the head with her elbow. The Grand Councilwoman kneels on the snow to be at eye-level.

“Child, do you know what the Avatar is?” she asks.

Lilo pauses and thinks for a moment. It’s hard with her head as fuzzy as it is. She feels like she knows, but the sensation isn’t anything that she can put to words.

“It’s important,” Lilo says eventually.

The Grand Councilwoman nods. “Very much so. The Avatar is the bridge between this world and the Spirit World. The Avatar also keeps the peace between the nations through their ability to bend all the elements.” The Grand Councilwoman pauses. “We don’t perform the test until the children are eight, and we don’t tell the Avatar their identity until they are sixteen. But you have made much of our normal procedures null and void.”

“Sorry,” Lilo says, mostly out of habit.

The Grand Councilwoman gives a small laugh, light and elegant.

“Well, all it means is that now you will have to bear with the knowledge, my dear.”

“What?” Lilo still feels like she’s missing something.

“You are the Avatar.”

Lilo blinks and tries to run everything she’s just heard through her head again to see if she’s understanding it right. She thinks maybe she’s missing something, because it doesn’t sound right. The Grand Councilwoman smiles.

“Avatar Lilo, you are young to have this burden revealed to you, but I have the utmost belief that you will be able to grow into the title admirably.” She looks over Lilo to Stitch. “Already you have saved a life before it was taken without cause. People fear what they do not understand.”

That at least, Lilo understands fully. She nods her head. After this, she’s going to ask Nani what all being the Avatar means, but right now she’s too tied to do much else.

“Can I go to sleep now?” she asks in her most polite voice.

“Lilo!” Nani hisses from behind her. Lilo rolls her eyes and corrects herself.

“ _May_ I go to sleep now?”

The Grand Councilwoman smiles again before dipping her head and standing up.

“You may. We will discuss things tomorrow, Avatar Lilo.” With that, the Grand Councilwoman drifts away from her, towards the crowd.

“Are we the Northern Water Tribe or the Tribe of Simpering Gawkers?” she asks cooly. Their audience immediately disperses, still sending wide-eyed looks at Lilo as they do. Gantu stares at her for a moment before turning and heading away while shaking his head.

Lilo sighs and sits down. Stitch copies and lays his head on Lilo’s shoulder. He’s still shaking, but he’s also much calmer and warmer to her than before.

“Lilo,” Nani says as she approaches. She kneels down with her back facing her sister so Lilo can crawl up her back. Lilo does and Nani slowly gets to her feet after looking Lilo’s legs through her arms.

“Stitch…” Lilo mutters.

Nani sighs. “He’s coming with us.” David is following behind Lilo and her sister. Stitch is walking beside David, hissing whenever David looks his way. Lilo smiles at the freaked out expression, because she can tell from Stitch’s eyes that he’s just joking.

“Nobody gets left behind,” Lilo mutters as she turns her head forward again.

“Yeah,” Nani says softly.

Their party makes their way through the city without another disruption, though Lilo can hear the people on the street muttering something about her. She doesn’t care.

After they enter the igloo, Nani helps Lilo out of her coat in record time. David finishes healing the wounds on her hands, and after drinking some water, Lilo is wrapped up with three blankets and set near the fire. Stitch watches all of this curiously before he finally settles down next to Lilo, wrapping his tail around her little cocoon comfortingly. His eyes slowly lull closed and Lilo feels like something is beginning here, something big and scary and new and wonderful. Lilo knows David and Nani are both tense, but now she also knows that she has the power to protect things that matter to her, so she isn’t so worried anymore.

And with Stitch beside, she knows she isn’t alone anymore either.

Life isn’t perfect— hasn’t been perfect since Lilo and Nani’s parents died, but Lilo thinks it’s just a little more right now. She lets the feeling sink in before she falls asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> I've got a few different ideas on the backburners, but if anyone has suggestions, I'm more than happy to hear them.
> 
> Lilo was just the first story I was able to finish. I'm thinking Mulan or Tangles next...
> 
> Leave a note if you like!


End file.
